Fresh from cutting its workforce, Yahoo! is looking at getting rid of products that don't fit the struggling Internet pioneer's efforts to re-invent itself.
"Part of our organisational streamlining involves shifting our investment with off-strategy products to put better focus on our core strengths and fund new innovation in the next year and beyond," Yahoo! said on December 17 in response to an AFP inquiry.
Yahoo! properties on an internal "sunset" list leaked onto the Internet this week included MyBlogLog, Yahoo! Picks, Yahoo! Bookmarks, Yahoo! Buzz and search service AltaVista.
"We're actively thinking about the future of Delicious and we believe there is a home outside the company that would make more sense for the service, our users and our shareholders," Yahoo! said.
A message at the Delicious blog assured users that the social Website bookmarking service was not being shut down. While not a "strategic fit" for Yahoo!, Delicious could find an "ideal home" elsewhere.
The Sunnyvale, California-based firm declined to discuss other properties on the list other than to say that it was making decisions based on which products had promise and which were under-performing.
Yahoo! on December 14 announced that it would cut some 600 jobs, about four percent of its global workforce, as it fought to regain its footing on a shifting Internet landscape increasingly dominated by Google and Facebook.
It was the third round of layoffs since the fall of 2008 and the second since Carol Bartz took over as chief executive in January 2009.
Bartz replaced Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang at the helm after the company rebuffed a bid by Microsoft to buy the company for about 45 billion dollars in early 2008.
Microsoft and Yahoo! reached an agreement last year that calls for the US software giant to power searches at all Yahoo! websites. Yahoo! will continue, however, to present search results in its own fashion on its sites, with only a discreet reference at the bottom of the page to their being "Powered by Bing," Microsoft's new search engine.
Yahoo! has "disposed of non-core assets" while making strategic acquisitions and cultivating partnerships with hot young Internet stars Facebook, Twitter, and Zynga, according to Bartz.
Comments
Comments are closed.